Over the last nearly two calendar years, as the Houston Texans have seemingly vacillated across all ends of the NFL’s relevance spectrum, from dark horse Super Bowl contender in 2024 and 2025, to a winless oddity here, so far, in 2026, there’s been one question kind of hanging in the background the entire time — what’s happening with Tank Dell.
It was December 21, 2024, when Dell’s teammate,Jared Wayne, inadvertently collided with Dell’s left knee in the back of the end zone in a loss to Kansas City, essentially pulverizing every ligament holding together Dell’s knee joint. Dell was carted off in an ambulance, underwent multiple surgeries, and spent 2025 rehabbing for a possible return in 2026.
Since Dell’s knee became structurally sound enough to run drills, our window into his progress has consisted of occasional (highly encouraging) workout videos on Instagram, and a small handful of practice reps during training camp. For the final several days of training camp, Dell was nursing some sort of injury, so he was persona non grata, and eventually wound up on injured reserve with an eventual “return to play” designation.
By rule, Dell was forced to sit out the first four games of the season before being allowed to practice again. As we are all painfully aware, the Texans have played their first four games, winning exactly zero of them. However, hope now springs eternal, as DeMeco Ryans confirmed today that Tank Dell’s 21-day practice window (along with Braden Smith’s and Kayden McDonald’s) will be opening this week:
Okay, this is an important milestone in the saga of one of the more popular Texans players in recent team history. Here’s what you need to know:
What is the 21-day practice window?
When a player goes to injured reserve, the team has a chance to bring him back during the seaosn after he’s been out for four games. The first step in bringing a player back is to allow him to practice for up to 21 days. At anytime during that 21-day window, the team can choose to activate the player. Each NFL team use the “return to play” designation eight times, and they are allowed to use it twice in the same season on one player. If they do use it twice in the same season on one player, that counts as two of the eight opportunities to bring injured players back. The big Dell related takeaway here is that, in what’s felt like an endless saga, we will have some sort of resolution within the next 21 days, because if a player in the practice window is not activated after 21 days, he reverts to season long injured reserve and is done for the year.
If Dell gets the go ahead to play in games, then what happens?
Dell will likely start practicing this week, and we will see where he is in his progress. It should be fascinating to see if he gets treated like a normal player in practice, or will he be limited in what he can do. Dell performed VERY few activities that a healthy player would perform when he was in camp. The closest thing he did to a normal practice activity was participating in all throughs, and in a few 11 on 11 drills in pads. If he does get the go ahead to play in games, then he will be added to the 53-man roster, and the Texans would need to release a player. If they release a wide receiver, it’s likely Jared Wayne, who ironically is the player who accidentally injured Dell.
If it turns out Dell is not healthy enough to return after 21 days, then what?
If it turns out Tank Dell just can’t make it all the way back, then things get itneresting. Without getting too technical, the injury designation that the team used to Dell from getting exposed to waivers when rosters were cut down at the end of camp is a designation whereby the Texans lose one of their eight “return to play” designations, whether Dell returns or not. If Dell can’t go at the end of the 21-day window, and he’s done for the year, this was a painful miscalculation by the Texans’ staff and front office. Beyond that, the next question would become “What happens to Tank Dell’s future as a Texan?” Right now, he’s in a contract year. Would the team tack another cheap year onto his deal to keep him in the building, or after two full years of trying to rehab, is Dell’s knee a lost cause? Hopefully, we don’t have to answer these questions, and Dell gets back on the field in a few weeks.
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